Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Alpen Optics Going Out of Business

Word on the street.
Verified:
http://thinkingafield.org/2018/03/alpen-optics-closes-doors-after-22-years-of-business.html

If all of the Optics are like there spotting scopes......No wonder they are going out of Business...Pure Junk.

I have one of their scopes and like it. It was cheap enough that I decided to gamble on its long term viability. I did not put much stock in their lifetime warranty.

The moral of the story is that you always take a chance when buying from a small company with no track record. If they don't stay in business, your warranty won't be worth anything. Of course the same could be said of some large established companies. When my Pentax camera quit working, and it would cost more to repair it than what it would cost to buy a used one, or even a newer competitive camera, I wrote off about a grand as so much junk. Pentax not longer handles their own warranty repairs, and the company seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird.

Some of the newer companies offering rifle scopes appear to offer innovative products and great value, but you have to consider how much you're willing to gamble.

Caveat emptor.

Paul

That is why I refrain from buying products from start up company.A lifetime warranty is only good if the business stays in operation.Burris,Nikon,Leupold,Zeiss,Meopta and more have stood the test of time.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Speaking of which, the Tract guy seems to have disappeared again...

The Alpen folks were great people. As for their products, they made too many levels. Anyone buying a low end product made assumptions about the whole line. If you bought from their top end, you were likely satisfied. I never figured out why they made so many models.

Alpen never made anything, they just placed their order in to the large mfrs. in China.

There are many clone type sellers, and some new ones pop up every year, so just consider what a lifetime warranty means.

It means only for the life of the company. Zenray, is also tits up.

I have to give props to Cameraland on that front. I bought some binos last year and had it narrowed down to 2 options, one of which was a Zen Ray. Called up CLNY and they recommended against the Zen Ray because of recent (at that time) poor service response.